Lena Dunham recently shed light on her past relationship with Jack Antonoff, making surprising comments just months before details of his separation from wife Margaret Qualley became public.

In her 2026 memoir titled “Famesick,” the “Girls” creator reflected on her nearly six-year romance with the music producer, whom she dated from 2012 to the end of 2017. She mentioned that Antonoff often spent time with an unnamed “teen pop star.”

Within the pages of her memoir, Dunham described an instance when she video-called Antonoff while visiting her grandmother. She found him in the recording studio at their apartment, collaborating with the young pop star, who she admits she didn’t feel threatened by.

The 40-year-old Golden Globe winner recounted that Antonoff, now 42, frequently stayed cloistered in a room with the teen star. She noted how this young artist, whose needs seemed as significant and intricate as her own, affectionately referred to her as “Aunt Lena” when she would make her way to the kitchen with her walker to grab more green tea.

Dunham also shared an anecdote about returning from a doctor’s appointment to find the young pop star emotionally vulnerable on their sectional couch, sobbing on Antonoff’s lap. He comforted her lovingly, saying, “your teens are for experimenting,” in a manner so soothing it nearly moved Dunham to tears.

“It had been so long since he’d spoken to me with that kind of expansive generosity,” she recalled in the book.

Though Dunham never named the woman in question, fans suspected it was Lorde.

Antonoff worked with the “Royals” singer, now 29, on her second studio album, “Melodrama,” in 2015 and 2016. At the time, Lorde — born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor — was 18 and 19 years old.

The hitmaker denied rumors that he cheated on Dunham with Lorde, saying on X in 2018 that he was not “seeing anyone.”

“Normally i would never address rumors but i resent having the most important friendships and working relationships in my life reduced to dumb hetero normative gossip,” he wrote at the time.

“Those relationships are deeply important and sacred. with that said, im not seeing anyone. lol.”

Lorde also shut down the allegations, telling fans on Instagram Live that she and Antonoff were “not dating.”

“For the last time… I love him, he’s awesome. But we’re not dating. Please!” she said in February 2018.

In the memoir, Dunham revealed that Antonoff allegedly threw her pain medication down the toilet after they got into the “worst fight” of their relationship.

The “Too Much” alum said the couple argued when she spoke to Antonoff about her growing reliance on pain medication following her recent hysterectomy.

Dunham wrote that Antonoff’s response “was to go to the bathroom and angrily flush all my pills down the toilet, which necessitated a call to the doctor and a late-night trip to the pharmacy to get more so that I wouldn’t go into withdrawal — from any one of the drugs — overnight.”

Dunham’s memoir revelations resurfaced after news broke that Antonoff and his wife, Qualley, were calling it quits just weeks shy of their third wedding anniversary.

Page Six exclusively reported that the couple — who tied the knot in August 2023 — had challenges in their marriage.

“Jack could be very particular about how he liked things,” a source told us. “He’d often prefer for things to be done the way he thought was best, and Margaret didn’t always feel like her perspective was being heard or given the same weight.”

“Communication was definitely a challenge between him and Margaret,” the insider added.

Ahead of their breakup news, the “Maid” actress, 31, quietly deleted photos of Antonoff off her Instagram page. Qualley also did not accompany her husband to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s New York City wedding on July 3.

In a bid to calm growing unrest within Russia, President Vladimir Putin has reacted with anger to Ukraine’s persistent attacks targeting the nation’s oil refineries, depots, and tankers.

During a meeting with his ministers, Putin sought to reassure them by portraying the escalating economic turmoil as ‘temporary.’ He firmly denied claims that Kyiv’s unyielding offensives would undermine his leadership.

This development follows Ukraine’s dramatic overnight strikes on two significant oil hubs. Heavy smoke was visible rising from depots in both Tver and Mikhailovsk in the Stavropol region, exposing further lapses in Russian air defense capabilities.

Ukrainian drone assaults have now disabled as many as 24 oil tankers this week alone, significantly disrupting shipments to the contested Crimea peninsula.

Reports indicate that five additional tankers were struck and set afire overnight in the Azov Sea, exacerbating the crippling supply challenges.

Two were struck in Taganrog Bay, admitted Putin’s top official in Rostov region, Yuri Slyusar.

Dramatic footage shows a Sea Baby marine drone dodging intense incoming Russian fire to strike oil tanker Blue in the Black Sea off Crimean port Yalta.

The electricity ‘interconnector’ linking Crimea to Russia via undersea cables has been hit, along with 50 energy facilities on the peninsula, according to Ukrainian sources.

The major oil depot strikes in Russia overnight were at Tvernefteprodukt in Tver region and LUKOIL-Yugnefteprodukt depot in Mikhailovsk, Stavropol region.

Amid Ukraine’s turnaround in the war, Putin sought to reassure his ministers in a key televised meeting aimed at reassuring the public.

The Kremlin dictator said: ‘It’s absolutely obvious that the enemy [Ukraine] is trying to damage the economy, but most importantly, it seeks to create an atmosphere of anxiety in society.’

He insisted that ‘this goal is unattainable’, claiming – against the evidence of filling station queues across his country, and a feared collapse of the agricultural sector – that ‘resilience of Russia’s energy system is very high, one of the highest in the world’.

Putin failed to explain why Russians are forced to wait days in lines to buy rationed petrol in a major oil-producing country.

He made out there was only ‘temporary’ disruption, triggering doubts about whether he understood the crisis engulfing him due to his refusal to halt the war.

With fuel prices soaring, and millions of vacations to blockaded Crimea cancelled, one pro-war fanatic asked in response: ‘I wonder how the situation will normalise?’

A previous Ukrainian drone onslaught overnight on Tuesday took out two giant Kremlin energy complexes in Nizhnekamsk and Saratov, both engulfed by infernos. 

A military airfield was also set ablaze at Borisoglebsk in Voronezh region and 19 tankers were hit.

It was confirmed that the country’s largest refinery in Omsk, Siberia, was the latest to halt production following an audacious long-range attack.

Meanwhile, Fights are breaking out at petrol stations across Russia as repeated Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities and logistics hubs disrupt fuel supplies.

Shortages of petrol and diesel are paralysing Russia with gargantuan queues at filling stations where prices are spiralling, and people are losing patience.

One Telegram video appears to show two pairs of men trading punches outside a petrol station as a shocked onlooker films the brawl, saying: ‘It’s so scary to live like this.’

Another clip shows a woman yanking a petrol pump away from a motorcyclist accused of jumping the queue. ‘I’ve been waiting an hour,’ he protests, prompting others nearby to shout back: ‘We’ve been here for four hours!’

The latest videos join a growing stream of footage from across Russia over recent weeks, showing ordinary people from Moscow to Crimea brawling over dwindling fuel supplies.

Other clips show motorists throwing punches at petrol pumps, while one video appears to capture a man pulling a gun on someone accused of queue-jumping.

In another incident, the confrontation escalated so dramatically that a woman was left with a bloodied nose after allegedly being punched by an impatient man.

The chaos comes as a European state intelligence report recently revealed that Russia risks an ‘explosive’ banking crisis.

The two-page report also revealed that half a million Russians went bankrupt last year. 

While Russia’s banks have mostly weathered the sanctions imposed since Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the June report says deteriorating loans and growing household indebtedness create an ‘explosive’ risk, just as the EU prepares a 21st package of sanctions it hopes to finalise in July, targeting banks and cryptocurrency networks.

The Russian central bank declined to comment on the assessment, although it has recently played down the risks of a major banking crisis.

With the cost of a four-year war with Ukraine draining state coffers, Russia has increasingly leant on banks to support companies and borrowers. The report says this has lumbered banks with risks, as the economy teeters.

The Economy Ministry cut its gross domestic product​ growth forecast to 0.4 per cent in 2026 from 1.3 per cent previously and to 1.4 per cent in 2027 from 2.8 per cent.

The intelligence report, titled ‘Note on the probability of a banking crisis in Russia in 2026′, said banks have been pushed to give subsidised loans to defence companies, homebuyers and others. It noted that state-backed credit programmes, loan restructurings and government support masked the banks’ vulnerability.

‘The situation creates the illusion of a dynamic economy that, in reality, conceals an explosive situation which an economic shock, such as an ambitious package of sanctions against banks … could trigger,’ said the report.

Lending to defence firms, regional state-backed projects and homeowners has increased the amount of loans that may never be repaid, the authors said.

The family of the late Charlie Kirk, including his widow and parents, has expressed frustration at being unable to view critical evidence during a preliminary hearing for the accused murderer. They contend, in a recent court document, that victims are entitled to not only attend legal proceedings but also have full access to observe the presented evidence.

Tyler Robinson, a 23-year-old, faces allegations of assassinating conservative figure Charlie Kirk outside a “Prove Me Wrong” event held at Utah Valley University in Orem on September 10, 2025. A preliminary hearing is currently ongoing to establish whether the case will proceed to trial.

In a supplementary notice filed this past Wednesday, Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, petitioned a judge in Utah to ensure all evidence introduced in the remainder of Robinson’s preliminary hearing is made visible in real-time to everyone present in the courtroom legally. Additionally, she requested the court to display previously presented exhibits from the first three days of the hearing that had not been shown to the public.

The family’s formal statement is unequivocal: every piece of evidence submitted during the preliminary hearing should be visible to all lawful attendees, as their filing declared. “Hiding evidence from those in the courtroom, as occurred today, undermines transparency. Without transparency, speculation and conspiracy theories about Mr. Kirk’s tragic assassination will likely multiply, eroding trust in the justice system. No one desires this outcome.”

The filing says the Kirk family waited 10 months for the preliminary hearing and traveled to the courthouse to witness the proceedings, only to find themselves unable to view certain evidence admitted during testimony.

Attorneys wrote the family was “present in body” but denied the ability to “meaningfully observe the preliminary hearing.”

The filing also contends that Utah law guarantees crime victims and their representatives the right to be informed of, present at and heard during important criminal justice proceedings, and argues those protections are meaningless if victims cannot see the evidence being presented to the court.

“The right ‘to be present’ is hollow if the victim or his representative is physically in the room but is prevented from seeing the evidence the Court is receiving,” the document reads. “A right to attend that does not include the ability to perceive what is happening is not meaningful presence at all.”

The filing asks the court to display all previously admitted exhibits that were not shown publicly during proceedings scheduled for July 9 and to require that all future evidence admitted during the preliminary hearing be displayed openly and in real time for everyone lawfully present in the courtroom.

It also asks the judge to prohibit evidence from being received in a manner that conceals it from courtroom observers.

Robinson’s preliminary hearing began Monday and is expected to continue through the week. Prosecutors must establish probable cause for the case to proceed to trial on multiple charges, including aggravated murder, which carries the potential death penalty.

Costco is under scrutiny as a class-action lawsuit has been filed against the wholesale giant. The lawsuit accuses the company of selling protein powders with dangerously high levels of toxic metals, while promoting these products misleadingly as “good clean fuel.”

Earlier this week, the lawsuit was initiated in the federal court for the Western District of Washington. Allegations claim that Costco failed to inform consumers about the presence of significant amounts of arsenic, cadmium, and lead in its Orgain Organic Plant-Based Protein Powder, substances that can pose significant health risks.

The plaintiffs in this case are not only seeking punitive damages but also want a court mandate that compels Costco to disclose the heavy metals in their products. They argue that the retailer engaged in unfair trade practices and breached several state laws, suggesting that Costco was aware or should have been aware of the dangerous metals.

“Many consumers who purchase and consume protein powder do so regularly, with a strong emphasis on maintaining their fitness and health,” stated Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman, the Seattle-based law firm representing the plaintiffs.

Berman further noted, “These very health-conscious buyers have repeatedly been exposed to alarming levels of hazardous heavy metals — including lead, cadmium, and arsenic — all the while trusting that Costco’s quality checks would have prevented such an oversight.”

Costco and Orgain did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday cited an investigation by the Clean Label Project and Consumer Reports, which found that Orgain’s Vanilla Bean protein powder exceeded its “level of concern” for lead.

Independent laboratory testing conducted by one of the plaintiffs and plaintiffs’ counsel confirmed the presence of heavy metals in Orgain’s Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Fudge powders, according to the suit.

Orgain has said its products are safe for daily use despite the Consumer Reports investigation, and their protein powders are not facing any recalls – currently being sold by Costco and other major retailers including Amazon, Target and Walmart.

There is no known safe level of exposure to heavy metals, and exposure can pose serious health risks, including cancers; liver, kidney and brain damage; reproductive disorders; skin disorders; and cardiovascular disease, according to the World Health Organization and US Food & Drug Administration.

Yet Costco sold the product in stores and online without disclosing the presence of heavy metals, calling it “good clean fuel,” saying the powders have “quality ingredients and higher standards” and that Orgain is “relentless about quality,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit also alleged that consumers purchased the protein powders at a higher price – about $30 per container – because they believed they were purchasing a health supplement, and they would have opted for cheaper alternatives if they were made aware of the presence of toxic metals.

As the market for protein powders and other health supplements has exploded, so has the presence of toxic heavy metals in these products, according to the Consumer Reports investigation.

More than two-thirds of the 23 protein powders and ready-to-drink shakes tested by Consumer Reports contained more lead than food safety experts said would be safe to consume in a day – some by more than 10 times.

A model has become an internet sensation due to her remarkable likeness to football star Erling Haaland and is rooting for him to outplay England and lead Norway to a World Cup victory.

Anastasia Kostromitina, a 24-year-old from Russia, was initially hesitant about the resemblance but has since embraced the striking similarity.

Her influencer mother, Mariya, 56, choreographed a video in which Anastasia appeared, and it rapidly gained viral attention.

The entertaining clip starts with a question from her mother: ‘Is it just me, or does my daughter look like a star?’

In the video, Anastasia imitates Haaland’s distinct gestures, poses, and movements with precision.

Although the model is now ‘tired’ of her sudden fame, she is backing Manchester City’s perennial top scorer to sink England at the quarter-finals on Saturday. 

‘Of course we’ll be cheering for Norway, and we’re hoping Erling Haaland goes all the way,’ Mariya said.

She called the forward – who has scored seven goals from four appearances so far – ‘an absolute powerhouse’. 

‘Now we have a personal stake in it, too. He already feels like one of our own!’

Moscow–based Anastasia, whose father served in the Soviet Red Army, ‘initially denied the resemblance, but eventually changed her mind,’ revealed Life news outlet. 

‘To be honest, I went through all the stages of denial about it,’ said the model, whose video had four million–plus views.

‘And at first, I didn’t understand how I resembled him. Then I felt a little hurt.

‘But now I understand that being like such a great athlete, even if only physically, is actually quite good. And I decided to capitalise on that.’

She was not expecting it to be so popular.

‘My entire feed was filled with videos of girls who looked like him, and I thought, “Why not make one too?”

‘Especially since their videos were getting a lot of views. 

‘I was hoping, of course, that my version would get a lot of likes, but I never expected this kind of attention.’

Anastasia says there was online bile, too: ‘As soon as the haters started appearing in the comments, I realised the video was definitely trending. 

‘But there are way more positive comments. That’s nice.

‘The haters don’t bother me. They only add to my following.

‘I work as a model in Moscow, so I hope brands and photographers will notice me and I’ll get a lot of shoots.’

She is not a big football fan, she said, but watches with her boyfriend and is ‘rooting for the Norwegian national team’.

She is unsure about a future photoshoot with Haaland but ‘would be happy to take a selfie with him’.